The theme of this lecture is the ‘crisis’ facing British television triggered by the departure of ‘talent’ – by which Janet Street-Porter means ‘everyone who makes a difference to what hits the screen’. The cause of this malaise is television management, which has typically been composed of ‘“M” people’ – ‘Middle-class, Middle-brow, Middle-aged and Male, Masonic in their tendencies and, not to put to fine a point on it, fairly Mediocre.’ The final problem with M people is that there have ‘always been too many of them’.

The other problem with television is its structure. Senior managers, moreover, have lost any sense of purpose and have become ‘conservative, risk-averse caretakers of creaky structures and out of date formula shows’. Perhaps unsurprisingly, audiences for such programming are diminshing. Talent itself has contributed to the malaise in two ways. First, by cynically linking ‘commerce and crap’, talent has failed to recognise that making the highest quality programmes for the most discerning audiences will generate the greatest opportunities. Second, talent seeking promotion has typically moved into management for higher pay. Structures must be put in place which reward creative people for staying in creative jobs where they can deliver most value.